I’ve got another director-related post nearly ready to go, but I thought I’d share a trio of casting news I heard this week that I’m excited about, all involving three talented underrated actors I’d love to see getting more work. So here goes.

Karl Urban’s cast in JJ Abrams’ futuristic drama pilot for FOX

The idea of seeing the ultra hunky Karl Urban on the TV screen is certainly a very enticing prospect. Deadline reported that after a lengthy negotiations, the 40-year-old New Zealander has closed a deal to star opposite Michael Ealy in Fox‘s untitled J.H. Wyman/J.J. Abrams drama pilot (formerly Inhuman). As you know, Abrams directed Urban as Bones in the Star Trek movie franchise, though I wish Urban had been given more screen time this time around. Anyway, though I’m a bit tired of seeing sooo many procedural shows on TV, I quite like the sound of this one. It’s billed an action-packed buddy cop show set in the near future when all LAPD officers are partnered with highly evolved human-like androids.

Apparently Urban will play a human cop John Kennex and his partner Dorian (Ealy) is an android cop. Kennex is described as a respected police officer who has shut down emotionally after a tragic mission left him critically injured. The cast of the pilot also includes Lili Taylor and Minka Kelly (meh). Urban’s played a bad ass futuristic cop before in Dredd 3D, I’m just thrilled that this time we could actually see his entire face :D The show’ll be produced by Warner Bros TV and Abram’s production company Bad Robot. Let’s hope this one won’t tank like Abrams’ once-promising show Alcatraz.…

Rebecca Hall joins Wally Pfister’s directorial debut Transcendence

Oh man, this film’s quickly become one of my most-anticipated for 2014!

Last week I heard that Johnny Depp nabbed the lead role in Oscar-winning cinematographer Wally Pfister’s first film, which already has Paul Bettany as well. Fans of Christopher Nolan’s films are certainly familiar with the Chicago native Pfister as he’s the cinematographer in seven of his films, including the Batman trilogy. Last year he was also nominated for his work in Moneyball. This time Nolan lends his support as an executive producer, along with his wife Emma Thomas and Aaron Ryder.

Now they’ve cast Rebecca Hall in the female lead as Depp’s wife in this sci-fi drama. Apparently she beat out Rooney Mara and Emily Blunt for the role (per Collider). Now, what’s this film about? According to IMDb, here’s the premise:

A story centered on a scientist whose brain is uploaded into his creation — a supercomputer with the potential to think for itself — after he is assassinated by anti-technology terrorists.

Hall has worked with Nolan before in The Prestige. I quite like her in that one, and also her work in The Town, Everything Must Go and Starter for 10 with James McAvoy. I personally would rather see her than the other two actresses. I like Blunt but I’m not too fond of Mara, plus those two have been getting more steady work than Hall anyways.

I have high hopes for this one, though it also has a first-time screenwriter Jack Paglen penning the script. For sure it’ll look amazing, but whether or not Wfister’s career as a director will take off or not remains to be seen. It’s set to open on April 25, 2014.///

Alessandro Nivola joins a stellar cast for David O. Russell’s ABSCAM film

Now, last but not least. Nice to see Alessandro Nivola’s name being mentioned in this all-star cast. It’s still in the negotiation stage but I sure hope it would materialize! Per Deadline, Nivola is negotiating to join, get this, Bradley Cooper, Christian Bale, Jeremy Renner, Amy Adams AND Jennifer Lawrence in the David O Russell-directed drama on the ABSCAM scandal. WOW, what a cast!! I don’t know if all of the cast are confirmed, four of them have gotten accolades (including Oscar) under Russell’s direction before. One interesting cast member is comedian Louis C.K.

Nivola will play Reggio, the federal prosecutor who tried the case in court. The Eric Singer-scripted drama is about the ’70s FBI sting operation Abscam that took down a bunch of U.S. congressmen.

The article also mentions Nivola other project he’s just wrapped that also sounds intriguing: Atom Egoyan-directed Devil’s Knot, a drama starring Reese Witherspoon and Colin Firth. He plays Terry Hobbs, a stepfather of one of the three murdered children, who later became a focus of suspicion though he has denied any part in the triple murder and has not been brought up on charges. Glad to see Nivola getting more work, I mean people seems to only know him as Pollux Troy in Face/Off! He’s actually quite versatile, he was very good in Laurel Canyon, Mansfield Park, Junebug, and Coco Before Chanel. Those are pretty diverse roles and he pulled off every single one convincingly. He even sang in Junebug and he has a nice voice!

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Well, what do you think about any of these actors and/or projects? Any one of them appeal to you?

Love all three of these talents especially Urban and Hall! Bummed that Urban is taking a TV show mainly because he deserves to be in more films. He is a really good actor but Hollywood tends to skip by him. Sad! A big Urban fan. Hall is also very good and she is just waiting to break out big time. Great actress!

I know one reason that you and my wife like Karl Urban (wink, wink). I just think he’s good in everything he’s in even movies that are a bit lacking. Take Doom for instance. It was a violent, bloody mess in some places but Urban was great!

I was never a fan of any of JJ Abrams’ TV shows but this new sounds interesting. I love futuristic crime story.

I’m little hesitant about Wally Pfister’s flick but the casting is good so far. A first time director and writer working on a high concept story doesn’t always turn out well. But with Nolan involvement, he may have some input into the movie.

Yes, all very talented yet underrated actors! Yeah, Pfister is certainly an amazing cinematographer, I don’t know how many of them have made it into a good director. That’ll be a question for ardent movie fans :D

And yeah, I hope that ABSCAM cast would all sign on, well I could give or take Renner but the rest are solid!

I’m thrilled you like her too! I like Blunt but Hall just hasn’t been in nearly as many films. Yeah, at least in this one Depp is not hidden in weird makeup and costumes. I like him in more ‘normal’ roles like in Nick of Time. It’s not a great film but he’s actually pretty good!

Very fine heads-up on all of these Ruth. I’d be interested in seeing them all. Particularly that David O. Russell film. I was hoping to see DeNiro’s name in that cast though. But I suppose you can’t have everything ;-)

The tv show doesn’t sound that enticing to me. I mean, perhaps with JJ behind it could be something good, but it just sounds so generic to me. Transcendence sounds very intriguing. Hopefully it will live up to its potential.

And the cast for ABSCAM looks insane. I do hope Russel doesn’t pair up Bradley and Lawrence again. I mean they had great chemistry in SLP but, but considering the will be paired in at least one other film coming out soon i think audiences may get tired of it soon.

I’m really excited about Pfister’s debut. He has been a really great cinemtographer and I can only imagine his direction will be great as well, especially after working so long with Nolan. And to top it off, he has a great trio of actors now: Depp, Bettany and Hall (all of whom I like). That’s definitely a movie to look out for next year.

Let’s hope he lives up to your expectations Josh. I really don’t know if being a great cinematographer means it’ll be a smooth transition to being a good director, but hey it certainly could happen. The cast is very good indeed, so at least he’s started out in the right direction!

Yeah, I like the idea of Depp looking like himself instead of being covered up in goo, er I mean makeup :D Oh glad you like Hall too. I’ve actually been meaning to ask you if you wouldn’t mind reading a pitch I made a while ago with Hall in the female lead. I’ll send it to you over Twitter DM.

RaNdom MOVIE TRIVIA …

... on the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens:

The first J.J. Abrams film not to have a musical score by Michael Giacchino. Aptly enough, Giacchino stated in an interview that he would rather hear the music of John Williams in a new Star Wars film than his own.

In summer 2013, it was revealed both Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill had begun a vigorous regimen of diet, exercise and stunt training to prepare for their roles of Leia and Luke, respectively.

While filming in summer 2014, Harrison Ford broke his ankle on the door of the Millennium Falcon.

After publicly declining to direct a new Star Wars film, J.J. Abrams was visited at his Bad Robot office by Kathleen Kennedy. Their negotiations lasted over a month, during which time, Abrams' central concern was the vast magnitude and cultural significance of the project.

Michael Arndt penned the script for this film based on an outline by George Lucas for his abandoned sequel trilogy to the original Star Wars saga. Though few details of this outline have been made public, author Dave Pollack confirmed that the story would focus on the building of the New Republic after the fall of the Empire, that Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo would all appear, and that the children of Luke, Leia and Han would serve as the main characters of the story. However, Arndt's script was ultimately rejected and a new script penned by J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan.

After he was cast, Oscar Isaac revealed to director J.J. Abrams that his uncle is a huge Star Wars fan. As a result, arrangements for Isaac's uncle to visit the film set were made. To the great surprise of both Isaac and his uncle, Abrams then asked if he would be interested in appearing in the film as an extra. Isaac's uncle quickly agreed.

Like the creator of Star Wars, George Lucas, director J.J. Abrams has worked with Harrison Ford before. Ford appeared in Regarding Henry (1991), which was written by Abrams, who also appears briefly in the film as a delivery boy. Ford also acted in the second feature film by George Lucas, American Graffiti (1973).

Gary Oldman auditioned for the role that went to Max von Sydow.

This is not Simon Pegg first role in the Star Wars universe. He previously worked on Clone Wars as Dengar, one the bounty hunters seen in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980). While J.J. Abrams left the Star Trek films to direct this picture, Pegg not only appears in both, but is writing the script for Star Trek Beyond (2016).